Poland school stabbings linked to online violence glorification, Tusk says

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has linked a series of recent school stabbings to the online glorification of violence. Speaking after a crisis meeting with security services on Sunday, Tusk said the attacks were “very often spontaneous actions inspired by online activity.”

Arrests and police response

Police have arrested 117 people nationwide for possession of knives or other weapons, or for threatening to attack schools or fellow students. Tens of thousands of schools were searched. On Saturday, a woman was arrested in Warsaw after injuring three people and attacking a 17-year-old girl at an educational institution. That arrest came a day after thousands of officers visited schools across the country.

The stabbings sparked rumours of a “Bloody Friday” of more attacks from an online challenge. Polish security services also held a special meeting after receiving information about a potential attack on Tusk and Defence Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz. A spokesperson said the threat was treated as “deadly serious.”

Pattern of violence

The week saw two earlier stabbing attacks. On Wednesday, a 19-year-old student injured nine people at a vocational school in Mazovian province. A day later, a 37-year-old caretaker was killed when a 15-year-old entered a primary school in Leszczydół-Nowiny, north of Warsaw. In Sierpc, a 17-year-old was detained after allegedly stating on school grounds that he planned to harm someone.

Tusk said the violence was “nihilistic” and associated with the extreme right. “Some of the people detained are active in the ultraright environment,” he noted. Police have observed a rise in online searches for Nazi content and for “mass killers who have become idols online.”